Annotation:Kean O'Hara (1)

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KEAN O'HARA [1]. AKA and see "O'Hara's Cup" (Cupan Ui hEaghra). Irish, Air or Planxty (3/4 time). C Major (Complete Collection...): D Major (Joyce). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Composed by Turlough O'Carolan. "The Irish words of this song, composed by Carolan in honour of his friend Kean O'Hara of Nymphsfield, Co. Sligo, will be found in Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, vol. I., p. 64; and in Edward Walsh's Irish Popular Songs, p. 70" (Joyce). O'Sullivan (1958) elaborates that this "fine drinking song" was composed for O'Hara (or Cian Ó h-Eaghra), whom family lore names Kean Óg O'Hara. He was born about 1657 into an old family of the barony of Leyney, and married in 1704 Eleanor, daughter of Theobald Mathew, of Thomastown, County Tipperary. Kean died in 1719. Martin's History of Sligo (vol. 3), gives that he was Sheriff of Sligo from 1703-1713. Words to the tune, in translation, go:

Were I blessed in sweet Aran
Or Carlingford shade,
Where ships swiftly sailing
With claret and mead,
Diffusing soft pleasure
And glee to each heart,
Still the cup of O'Hara
Would greater impart.

Source for notated version: partly from John Windele, "the distinguished Cork archaeologist (d. 1865), and P. Carey, a piper of the Co. Cork, via Forde [Joyce, O'Sullivan].

Printed sources: Complete Collection of Carolan's Irish Tunes, 1984; No. 130, p. 93. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 685, p. 342. O'Sullivan (Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper), 1958; No. 130, p. 171

Recorded sources: Green Linnet GLCD 1128, Brendan Mulvihill & Donna Long - "The Morning Dew" (1993).

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